About 900 scientists, students and others from more than 30 nations took part in the biennial meeting of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research in Portland, Ore., in July. It was the first time in 26 years that the nongovernmental organization met in the United States.

Changing with the times

SCAR meeting returns to U.S. for first time in 26 years

By Peter Rejcek, Antarctic Sun Editor

Posted August 3, 2012

It’s been 26 years since the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) had held one of its biannual meetings in the United States before July’s gathering of about 900 scientists, national program managers, students and others in Portland, Ore.

“I think this is a great time to demonstrate the strength of the U.S. program and how important it is in the international arena. Antarctic science, by its nature, is international,” said Kennicutt, a professor of oceanography at Texas A&M University and principal investigator on an ongoing project at the U.S. Antarctic Program’s McMurdo Station to monitor human impacts.

A major component of IGY was polar research, particularly in Antarctica. During a meeting in 1957, ICSU decided that there was need for an international organization to coordinate scientific activity in Antarctica — and the Special Committee on Antarctic Research was born, composed of the 12 nations actively engaged in research on and around the southernmost continent.

Photo Credit: Portland State University

SCAR President Mahlon “Chuck” Kennicutt II speaks during the opening plenary session on July 16, 2012.

In the 50-plus years since its founding, much has changed about SCAR aside from its name. The number of member nations involved has tripled to 36, and also includes nine ICSU scientific unions. In 2000, SCAR underwent a radical re-organization to revitalize what some felt had become an insular body that hadn’t changed with the times.

“There was a whole range of major changes recommended. SCAR scraped the old structure, and a totally new one created,” Kennicutt said.

But one thing hasn’t changed, he added. “The fundamental mission of SCAR is a as important today, if not more so, than it was during the IGY.”

That mission is two-fold: To coordinate and facilitate international research in Antarctic and the Southern Ocean, and to provide independent, authoritative scientific advice to the Antarctic Treaty System, which governs the management and protection of the region for peaceful purposes.

The importance of the Antarctic region to the rest of the planet — and the increasing pressures placed upon it from climate change and other human impacts such as tourism and commercial fishing — has grown in recent years.

“SCAR sees its advisory role as more general than just the Antarctic Treaty and that is a change. Before Treaty issues were the sole focus for scientific advice, and that’s still 90 percent of what SCAR does for this part of its mission,” Kennicutt said, noting that SCAR has been sending representatives for ICSU to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an intergovernmental body that provides scientific assessments on the risks associated with climate change.

The 2007 IPCC assessment report projected a sea-level rise of between 18 and 59 centimeters by century’s end, as the planet warmed. However, some criticized that report because it really only accounted for changes in the Arctic, largely ignoring Antarctica and the Southern Ocean that encircles the world’s coldest and driest continent.

A report released by SCAR several years agp called Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment (ACCE) pulled together research from more than 100 scientists from many countries to provide the first comprehensive state of the climate picture for the region. It suggested that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, in particular, could contribute significantly more water to higher sea levels by 2100.

Photo Credit: Portland State University

It wasn't all about science at the SCAR conference. Attendees enjoy some of the images entered in a photo contest.

“That report elevated SCAR’s climate science, as far as providing authoritative updates,” Kennicutt said. “The 2014 IPCC report will be very different from the polar perspective, but we’ll see when it comes out.”

“We’re just beginning to see the science and new knowledge developed by the IPY. … The effect is building, as far as scientific knowledge,” Kennicutt said.

“The IPY deeply influenced Antarctic and Southern Ocean science, not only from a knowledge standpoint, but it also provided the bases for the next generation of programs,” he added. “The idea was that IPY would be a step function and not a one-time bump-up in activity. To be a step momentum must be maintained even as the IPY money fades away.”

Part of hat responsibility will fall to incoming SCAR President Jerónimo López Martínez, who was elected by the national delegates during the Portland meeting. The delegates also approved the next generation of SCAR Scientific Research Programmes, which include State of the Antarctic Ecosystem (AntEco), Antarctic Thresholds — Ecosystem Resilience and Adaptation (AnT-ERA), Antarctic Climate Change in the 21st Century (AntClim21; formerly PACE), Past Antarctic Ice Sheet Dynamics (PAIS) and Solid Earth Responses and influences on Cryospheric Evolution (SERCE).

The next biennial SCAR meeting will be held in 2014 in New Zealand, followed by a 2016 gathering in Malaysia, which recently joined the Antarctic Treaty System.